FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 12, 2012

Contact: Tony McDonald, Senior Vice Chairman
Mobile: (512) 923-6893
Email: [email protected]

Austin, TX—Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT) today condemned the call for more revenue made by Trent McKnight, GOP candidate for State Representative in House District 68. Mr. McKnight spoke at a candidate forum in Quanah, TX on June 19th where he claimed public education in Texas has “both a spending and a revenue problem and we need to be able to address both.”

“To say public education needs more revenue while claiming to be a conservative on the campaign trail is talking out of both sides of his mouth,” said Tony McDonald, YCT Senior Vice Chairman. “Texas has increased spending on public education nearly five times more than the rate of enrollment growth plus population and inflation over the past 10 years. But we have yet to see any demonstrable result from that spending. It’s clear to any conservative that throwing more money at the problem is not the answer.”

McKnight is in a runoff against Drew Springer, a financial services manager from Muenster, TX. In addition to YCT, Springer has received the endorsement of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, Texas Right to Life, Texas Home School Coalition and Concerned Women for America. McKnight on the other hand has been endorsed by Parent PAC, a public education administrator lobby group funded primarily by Democrats. Parent PAC has given money to liberal challengers to conservative legislators such as Van Taylor, Dan Flynn, and Charles Perry.

“It’s no surprise that Trent McKnight is on the side of throwing more money into a broken system. After all, Mr. McKnight has voted with the party supporting a “Spend More Now. Ask Questions Later.” philosophy his entire life – only switching from being a Democrat to being a Republican in order to run for State Representative,” said YCT State Chairman Jeff Morris. “At least we now have him on record to show voters who the real conservative is in HD 68.”

The video excerpt of Mr. McKnight’s speech can be found at AgendaWise.com.

Young Conservatives of Texas is a non-partisan organization that has promoted conservatism at universities across the Lone Star State for over three decades. The State’s most active political youth organization, YCT is composed of hundreds of members and alumni who participate in the full spectrum of politics. YCT issues the most respected ratings of the Texas legislature and is the only conservative group to have done so without interruption over the past 19 legislative sessions. For more information about YCT, please visit www.YCT.org.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 12, 2012

Contact: Tony McDonald, Senior Vice Chairman
Mobile: (512) 923-6893
Email: [email protected]

Austin, TX — Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT) today filed an open records request with the Office of the Lt. Governor requesting that the office turnover all speeches that have been deleted, or “archived” by the Lt. Governor’s legislative office since he has declared his candidacy for the United States Senate in addition to any communications between the Lt. Governor’s office and the Secretary of the Senate ordering those deletions to be made. The request was in response to news which broke Wednesday that the Lt. Governor’s office had deleted a controversial speech delivered by the Lt. Governor from his state website.

In the speech, delivered in 2007 by Lt. Governor Dewhurst upon receiving the “Mr. South Texas” award, Dewhurst stated that he supported “a guest worker program for those here today illegally.” This stance had drawn fire for being at odds with Mr. Dewhurst’s more recent comments in the US Senate race. Specifically, in a debate hosted by KERA on June 22nd, Mr. Dewhurst claimed that he didn’t “support a guest worker program” and “never had.” The contradictory “Mr. South Texas” speech was deleted from the Lt. Governor’s website sometime after Mr. Dewhurst made his false claim in the KERA Debate.

“We have known throughout this campaign that the Lt. Governor is running away from his record,” said Jeff Morris, YCT State Chairman. “But it is appalling that Mr. Dewhurst would try to delete the past in his effort to pull the wool over Texas voters’ eyes. If he expects to be our next Senator, Mr. Dewhurst should stand-by his moderate record and apologize for it, not try to hide from it, or deceive voters about it. We have filed our open records request so that Texas voters can know the full truth about David Dewhurst’s record.”

The request comes in response to statements by a spokesman from the Lt. Governor’s office made to the Associated Press on Wednesday confirming that his office had requested that his speeches be removed from his state website when he entered the US Senate race last year. The spokesman also confirmed that more recent efforts were made by the Lt. Governor’s office to ensure that the speeches were, in fact, removed from his state website.

YCT’s open records request, which is attached, asks the Lt. Governor’s office to provide Young Conservatives of Texas with all pages deleted from the Lt. Governor’s website in the past two years and any communications between the Lt. Governor’s office and the Secretary of the Senate ordering those deletions to be made.

The Lt. Governor’s office is required, by law, to comply with the request within 10 business days. The group hopes that the Office will comply with their obligations under the law in time for Texas voters to see the speeches before the US Senate runoff election on July 31st

Young Conservatives of Texas is a non-partisan organization that has promoted conservatism at universities across the Lone Star State for over three decades. The State’s most active political youth organization, YCT is composed of hundreds of members and alumni who participate in the full spectrum of politics. YCT issues the most respected ratings of the Texas legislature and is the only conservative group to have done so without interruption over the past 19 legislative sessions. For more information about YCT, please visit www.YCT.org. 

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